Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Mini pumpkin and black treacle pies

Hallow’s Eve is almost here and little ones up and down the land are getting excited at the prospect of free food in exchange for a fright.

Like any annual event in the calendar it is a great opportunity to have a party and as it is a child friendly time, they can get involved with the making as well as the eating. This year we will be making home made spooky pizza faces, wormy bug pasta and ghoulishly green apple and avocado smoothies.

The Americans are the masters of Halloween celebrations and they have used the pumpkin - something we usually simply carve out then throw onto the rubbish tip - to its full potential in a whole range of delicious pumpkin related recipes, including desserts. Pumpkin pie is a fabulous concoction of pureed pumpkin, sugar, cream and eggs and if you can get your head around the fact that there is a vegetable in the mix you will love it.

I like to use molasses packed sticky black treacle in mine, and they can be made into individual ‘pies’ for little hands by using mini pudding moulds such as in this recipe or jam tart cases. They are seasonal, delicious and frightfully fantastic. Happy Halloween kids.

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 180C/GM4. Roll out the pastry then portion and line some mini pudding moulds leaving the edges overlapped. Put into the fridge to rest.
2 - Bring a pan of water to the boil then cook the chopped pumpkin until tender. Blend to a puree.
3 - Pour the cream into a pan then add the sugar and spices then heat up to just under boiling point.
4 - Pour in the eggs and whisk well, then add the black treacle. Stir in the pumpkin puree and pour into the pudding moulds.
5 - Bake for 25-30 minutes or until just set.

Good to see a little twist with the treacle on your pumpkin recipe David. I've just hollowed out a pumpkin for soup. Can't believe my Dad used to hollow out a turnip when I was a kid! Now I know what all the tools in the garage were for.

For some reason I've never had pumpkin pie - your mini ones look super! I couldn't agree more about using pumpkins for carving only. I love pumpkin roasted in chunks and thrown together with some salad leaves, toasted pine nuts and a honey mustard dressing. Made a nice little starter for Halloween here!